Abstract
In many ways, the zombie seems to be a suitable trope for the challenges students, teachers, and parents may face as they confront and respond to imposed standards and curricula. More specifically, this chapter extends the zombie metaphor to examine the challenges two adolescent male learners and their mother faced as their New York public middle and high schools adopted national standards and imposed curricular modifications. Through the perspective of the stakeholders (the two students and their mother), assessment-driven changes ironically challenged good pedagogy and generated hysteria. In light of the qualitative data, this chapter suggests that videogames can provide a model for productive, collaborative, and creative change that promises to be relevant and meaningful to educators and students.
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Notes
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Programme for International Student Assessment.
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Trends in Mathematics and Science Study.
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National Assessment of Educational Progress.
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Abrams, S.S. (2016). Zombies, Boys, and Videogames: Problems and Possibilities in an Assessment Culture. In: Carrington, V., Rowsell, J., Priyadharshini, E., Westrup, R. (eds) Generation Z. Cultural Studies and Transdisciplinarity in Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-934-9_10
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